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Invest in Africa, Andy Young tells diaspora
2007-07-20 10:24:36
By Guardian Reporter
Former UN Ambassador Andrew Young, has stressed the need for the African Diaspora in America to make a bridge with the African continent, bring in money and invest it.
Ambassador Young, who chaired the Leon H. Sullivan Summit in Abuja, Nigeria, last year, was speaking in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday during a discussion with IPP Executive Chairman Reginald Mengi, which took the form of a brief interview.
Founded by the late Dr. Leon Sullivan in 1991, the Summit project has been credited with benefiting African countries with more jobs, training of bankers, and an estimated 20,000 farmers in the use of wells for irrigation.
The next Sullivan Summit, dubbed ``The Summit of a Lifetime,`` will take place in Arusha between May 19 and 22, 2008.
It will be hosted by President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete. According to Young, President George W. Bush has been invited to attend the conference.
The VII Summit aims at attracting investment in manufacturing, agriculture and tourism. It also targets to advance physical and business infrastructure, especially electrification, transport and information technology.
Meeting yearly in the various countries, the Summit has become a useful ally in development on the continent.
Responding to Mengi`s request to say something concerning Leon Sullivan, who founded the Summit, Ambassador Young said: ``Leon Sullivan was a great Baptist preacher in Philadelphia.
At the time of the civil rights movement, he was trying to find ways to integrate the economy. They had a system of economic segregation. He understood the importance of private sector business.
He engaged them in creating employment, marketing opportunities, and job training.``
Ambassador Young said the late Leon H. Sullivan started the Opportunities on Industrial Corporation, which trained poor people for jobs they would find.
``He was very much like President Nyerere in a sense that he was interested in education. He (Sullivan) was different in a way that he appreciated the power of capitalism.``
He said every year; Sullivan would load a couple of airplanes with teachers, doctors, lawyers and business people from all over the United States so as to prepare their counterparts in Africa.
The late Sullivan is credited with creating employment and marketing opportunities in South Africa during apartheid days, at a time when sanctions were imposed on the racist regime.
``He understood that South Africa would need people to manage the economy one day. It was not just a protest to withdraw from South Africa. You had to prepare a generation of Africans to take over,`` Ambassador Young said.
Asked by Mengi as to why Leon H. Sullivan had chosen him as co-chair of the project, Ambassador Young responded: “He knew I was interested in Africa before I became ambassador to the United Nations. As UN ambassador, I spent a lot of time in Africa.
He (Sullivan) came to our office after the 1996 Olympic Games. At that time he was about 79. He said he didn’t know how he was going to keep the summit going. So we agreed. Unfortunately before the year was out, he died.``
He told Mengi: ``I serve as chairperson. We had two summits in Nigeria. Obasanjo felt that Nigeria really needed it.
He thought that this was not only a way to bring us African Americans to Africa, but also help us bring back Africans who have migrated to America.``
Asked to comment about the impact of the Abuja summit which took place last year, Ambassador Young said: ``The Nigerian Diaspora (in America) are thinking of going back home. I ask them: Are you going back home?
They say no, because of the bad experiences they had during military rule. Now there are direct flights. We are going to see more and more people coming back (to Africa) with their money.``
The Leon H. Sullivan Summit VII in Abuja was attended by the presidents of Tanzania, Benin, Sudan, Niger, Senegal, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Togo and Mauritania.
Summit VIII in Arusha is expected to strengthen the bridge from America and other parts of the world among people of African heritage and Friends of Africa.
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